


What if it’s not Ken, but Barbie?

by mnigro03



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Behavioral Analysis Unit (Criminal Minds), Canon Divergent, F/F, F/M, Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Lesbian Emily Prentiss, Slow Burn, i don’t like elizabeth prentiss, no Will, not super case focused, wlw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:34:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29807115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mnigro03/pseuds/mnigro03
Summary: How long had Emily Prentiss known she was gay? If we’re being honest she’d known since she was a teenager. But when she told her mother, it didn’t go over well. At all. After that she repressed all her feelings. Every crush on a girl she shoved so far down that it would never see the light of day. Everything changed when she met Jennifer Jareau. but will her mother get in the way of her relationship? what about aaron? will emily be herself or who she’s told she should be?
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Emily Prentiss, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau/Emily Prentiss
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

As Emily prentiss walked through the glass doors of the Behavioral Analysis Unit for the first time, she knew it wouldn’t be the last. She was ready to go. But nothing goes as planned. Agent Aaron Hotchner was surprised and confused to see her. Definitely not a good sign. She had the paperwork to back up her transfer so why did Agent Hotchner not know about it? He told her there had to be some kind of misunderstanding and the BAU had a case so she needed to leave. But before doing so she noticed a female blonde agent who popped into Agent Hotchner’s office to let him know about the case. She was glad to know she wouldn’t be the only woman on the team. Once this paperwork issue was resolved of course.  
Emily Prentiss walked back out the glass doors of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, not long after she’d arrived. She had a newfound motivation to prove herself.  
Over the course of the next four days, Emily found a case that looked very much like a possible BAU case. She studied it, wrote a preliminary profile, set up an action plan, everything she felt Agent Hotchner could possibly ask her about. By the last day when she got a call from the other female agent she met. The only agent that dared to actually introduce herself. She said her name was Penelope Garcia and she’s a technical analyst. She seemed very genuine and even offered to let Emily know when the team was coming back to DC. That’s what the call was.  
As soon as she hung up, Emily quickly packed up the stuff that she had been working on the past couple days. On the drive to Quantico she went over my profile and action plan in her head. Emily needed to prove that she deserved to be here. Emily was absolutely ready to prove that she deserved to be part of the BAU.

\-------------------------------------------------------------

Walking through the glass doors on the 7th floor of the Quantico building housing the BAU, Emily Prentiss was ready. She was prepared to defend her transfer and prove that it wasn’t a mistake. To prove that she deserved to be a profiler. She planned to wait in Agent Hotchner’s office until the team arrived. But on her way there she saw Penelope Garcia again. There didn’t appear to be anytime to chat, and to be honest, Emily didn’t really feel like small talk. She wanted to go over her information about the case one more time. But Penelope gave her a soft smile of encouragement as she walked through the bullpen. At least there was one person on this team already who wanted her to join. That was heartening.  
It couldn’t have been long that Emily waited. She was seated on the couch going over her profile one last time to make sure there weren’t any flaws when she heard footsteps outside the door. “Please tell me you haven’t been there for the last four days,” Agent Hotchner stated as he stepped into his office. Emily explained she just heard they were arriving back in DC, but she didn’t mention Penelope Garcia was the one who told her that. She didn’t want the first person that had really been friendly to her to hate her.  
Emily figured the best way to address this conversation was to just go for it. After making sure Agent Hotchner knew what case she was talking about, she told him the profile she had come up with. He asked a few questions about how she would advise the local police, and Emily was grateful she had been so thorough when writing her profile and action plan. It seemed Agent Hotchner was genuinely impressed. She finished her evaluation of the case with this, “This isn’t a whirl, Agent Hotchner. I don’t know how the paperwork got screwed up, or maybe you believe my parents pulled some strings, which they didn’t by the way. I belong in this unit. And all I’m asking you for is the chance to show you that.”  
Though Agent Hotchner seemed reluctant, he agreed to allow her transfer to go through and set her up with a desk in the middle of the bullpen. That was something she was thankful for, but she wasn’t going to let her guard down. She needed to be ready for anything, ready for any case that might cross her desk. Emily Prentiss was a fighter. And she would go down fighting.  
It was obvious Agent Hotchner was suspicious, but Emily wasn’t going to succumb to pressure. She kept her head up and did the best work she could. Emily came in earlier than her other teammates, and stayed later too. Maybe that’s because she was a workaholic, or maybe she felt she needed to put in more work than anyone else in order to prove that she would be loyal to this team. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------

Despite his suspicions, everyone on the Behavioral Analysis Unit, including Aaron Hotchner, began to accept Emily Prentiss as one of their own. Derek Morgan was Emily’s partner and the two quickly bonded. Spencer Reid was the resident genius and because of Emily’s also higher-than-average intelligence, the two worked together well. Penelope Garcia accepted Emily immediately, and was proud that Emily was able to prove herself to Agent Hotchner with a little help on the timing from Penelope. David Rossi was a founder of the BAU who had recently come out of retirement and he was slowly becoming a sort of father figure to Emily. Aaron Hotchner was the Unit Chief and was happy to see how well Emily had become a valuable part of the team. Last but not least was Jennifer Jareau. She was stunning, caring, and knew how to easily calm down a herd of reporters. Emily Prentiss was in awe of her. But in a very platonic way for sure. No, Emily prentiss was not gay. She was straight.


	2. Chapter 2

TW: sexual assault/rape mention and some graphic case-related sexual details

“We’ve got a case,” Jennifer Jareau said as she paced past the other members of the BAU team while they were working in the bullpen.  
“JJ seems stressed,” Derek Morgan noted to Emily once JJ was out of earshot. Emily was too lost in thought to respond. She was focused on how much she loved the sound of her voice, how one look from JJ could easily calm her nerves.  
“Emily. You coming?” Morgan asked?  
“Yeah, yeah sorry. I just zoned out a little bit.”

All eyes were on JJ as she pulled up the powerpoint with the case details. “We have a case in Omaha, Nebraska. The unsub is stripping men naked, tying them to a chair, chopping their genitals off, putting them in their mouths, and slicing their throats. So far we have a body count of 3 in a 2 month time period”  
“Any commonalities in their lives?” asked Agent Hotchner.  
Penelope Garcia answered first, still typing on her laptop. “Based on their social media profiles, they all appeared to be alpha males. All went to the gym regularly, very active on dating sites, and had vibrant partying and social lives.”  
“So we have someone killing alpha males. Is it someone that’s jealous of them, or angry at them?” David Rossi asked the team.  
“I think it might be a female unsub. Though cutting off the genitals is a sexual component, it feels like there’s more anger behind it than sexual motivation, which makes more sense when considering a female unsub dynamic, though I do wonder if it was done post or antemortem” Spencer Reid replied.  
Hotch addressed the whole team, “Now that we’ve got a feel for the case, it’ll be wheels up in 30.” Emily started to gather up her folder and headed to her desk to grab her go-bag, lost in thought. Her conscious was split thinking about her confusing feelings for her coworker, and theorizing about the case at hand. Yet she recalled little of it when JJ came up to her.  
“Hey Em, ready to go? We can walk out to the airstrip together?”  
“Uh, yeah let’s go.” What is going on with me? I’m usually so good at compartmentalizing, what is it that’s getting in the way? Emily thought to herself.

\---------------------------------------------------------------

Two hours later, the BAU jet touched down in Omaha, Nebraska. The team had done more theorizing on the plane, but they still needed more information before writing a complete profile. They walked into the precinct and were greeted by the police chief, Tony Raymond. JJ stepped forward considering he had spoken to her on the phone and already knew who she was. “Hi, we spoke on the phone? I’m Agent Jareau, this is Agent Morgan, Dr. Reid, Agent Prentiss, Agent Rossi, and our unit chief Agent Hotchner.”  
“Good to meet you all, I’m glad you were able to come. We knew it was too big of a case to handle on our own,” Chief Raymond said.  
“Is there somewhere we could set up?” Agent Hotchner asked.  
“Yep! We have a conference room right over here you can use,” Officer Raymond responded as he motioned the team to follow him. 

After getting settled, Hotch addressed the BAU, “We should get started on the investigation. Dave and Morgan, head to the last crime scene. Prentiss and JJ, go to the ME’s office. Reid, you stay here and start working on the geographical profile. Everybody good?” The team nodded. “Okay, meet back here in 2 hours max.”

Emily and JJ head to the ME’s office to examine the body. The medical examiner pulls back a cloth so they can see the would on the neck. “Was this the cause of death?” Emily asks her.  
“Yep. A deep incision severed the carotid artery causing death by exsanguination.”  
“His genitals were cut off,” JJ started, “was that done post or antemortem?” The medical examiner shudders as she begins to speak.  
“I’ve never seen anything like this before. The genitals were cut antemortem, and based on the blood loss in the body, there was increased blood flow to that area as well.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------

“She’s putting their genitals in their mouths while they’re still alive.”  
“Yeah, not only that, the ME told JJ and I that the men were aroused when this happened,” Emily continued.  
“So is she seducing them before she kills them?” asked Morgan.  
“It might be a way to make them compliant with her demands. If she were to act like she was going to have sex with them while they were tied up, they’d be much more likely to agree to what she want,” Rossi continued.  
“She’s a black widow,” everyone heard Hotch say.  
“You know, statistically female serial killers that kill their lovers tend to use poison, so I think that definitely says something about her psyche that she chooses to slit the throat of her victims,“ everyone heard Reid recite from memory, as though he was reading a book.  
“Most times female serial killers kill with a revenge motive,” Emily said as she dialed the number for Penelope Garcia who was back home at Quantico.  
“Penelope Garcia, knower of all things murderer, how can I help you ladies today?”  
“Hi Pen, can you look up records of women who reported rape or sexual assault in the past 3 years but their rapist was never charged with anything?” Emily asked.  
“Yeah you’ve got around 2,500 names. This includes women who dropped the charges as well.”  
“Garcia, how many of those names had rapists who were men between the ages of twenty five and thirty?” Reid questioned.  
“Still over a thousand my loves.” Hotch spoke next.  
“Have you found any connections between the victims we might be able to use to connect them to the unsub and narrow down this list?”  
“All three men regularly worked out, but not at the same place. Their credit card transactions don’t show any commonalities either,” Garcia said, relaying the information she had gathered to the team. Chief Raymond knocked on the door to the conference room.  
“Sorry to interrupt, but the first victim’s family is here.”  
“Thank you Chief,” Hotch said, “Rossi, Emily, do you want to go talk to them? While the rest of us help Garcia try to find where they crossed paths with the unsub.”  
“Sounds good Hotch, hopefully the family has something they can help us with,” Rossi said as he and Emily walked out of the conference room they were in and into the room Chief Raymond had told them the family was in. The first victim was Mark Weston. His mother, father, and younger sister were waiting to talk to the BAU.

“What did Mark usually do in his spare time? We know he was an avid gym goer, but did he have any other hobbies?” Rossi asked the family of Mark Weston. Mark’s mother spoke first.  
“Mark was a really good kid. He was always trying to better himself. After he had an incident his junior year of high school, he really put in hard work to turn his life around. He started going to the gym regularly and was doing better in school. Besides a few slip ups after the incident nothing was ever bad. He was doing so well, I can’t believe this could’ve happened to him,” Mrs. Weston said as she started to cry.  
“What kind of incidents?” Emily asked. This time Mark’s father responded.  
“He was accused by his girlfriend of sexual assault. But he was high and they were dating,” Emily and Rossi gave each other a look as Mr. Weston continued, “It was only marijuana but we told him he wasn’t allowed to smoke in the house. 6 months later we found some in his room. He claimed he was stopping for good.”  
Emily turned to Rossi and said, “I’m gonna call Garcia. Drug purchases aren’t easily trackable but maybe she can find a connection between the other victims or even Mark’s ex-girlfriend.”

“Hey Garcia, Mark used to use marijuana when he was a teenager, is there a way to find out if he continued that habit?”  
“Sugarplum, you doubt my abilities. Based on his banking records, he regularly withdrew cash from his account. Around once every 2 weeks he withdrew $50. That looks to me like drug money.”  
“Will you look into the other victims as well? See if their banking records show a similar pattern? Oh! Also, Mark had a girlfriend who claimed he sexually assaulted her his junior year. See if you can find more out about who she is and see if she could have a connection to the other victims,“ Emily said as she headed to the conference room to fill the team in on what she’d found out.  
After hearing what Emily had to say, Hotch was ready. “It’s time to deliver the profile.”

\---------------------------------------------------------------

Emily had managed to shove her confusion surrounding JJ to the back of her mind. She just liked her personality and enjoyed being around her. They were friends. That’s all. Emily was not attracted to her. Although she was able to recognize how stunning JJ was, that was merely platonic. Yeah. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.  
Garcia found similar cash withdrawal patterns in the bank accounts of all the victims and was looking into who they could’ve possibly bought from. “Guys, Garcia’s calling,” Reid told the room of agents.  
“Babes, I believe I have found the jackpot. After looking through the victim’s phones, I didn’t find any common contacts, but then I decided to check their social medias. All three victims had eight common friends on snapchat. Give me some more parameters and I can narrow that down for you.”  
Hotch spoke first. “How many are female?”  
“Five sir.”  
It was JJ that spoke up next. “Did any of them ever report sexual assualt or rape and have the charges dropped?”  
After a few seconds of typing, Garcia answered. “None of them reported it themselves, but one had a friend who reported that she was raped and became pregnant. Despite DNA evidence, her rapist was never charged. The rapist in question looks uncomfortably similar to Mark Weston. Actually, wait a second, they were in the same fraternity. Girls and gays, we’ve got her. The unsub’s name is Rose Davis. Just sent her address to your PDA’s.”  
“Garcia?” Emily asked.  
“Yes gumdrop?”  
“I fucking love you,” Emily quipped on her way out of the conference room. Reid hung up the phone and the BAU headed out to arrest the unsub. 

\---------------------------------------------------------------

It was late, but the team agreed they’d rather head home than spend the night. Everyone was asleep but Reid, who was playing himself in chess, and Emily, who was lost in thought. Staring out the window of the jet always seemed to put things in perspective for her. She’d spent the last few days especially trying to decipher her thoughts. Right now it was a blur. She didn’t know what was real and what she had made up. How did she feel about the beautiful blonde sitting across from her. Head leaning on the window, fast asleep. Emily watched her chest rise and fall. Entrancing her.  
Emily finally snapped back to reality what felt like two minutes later, but based on her watch, was more like forty five. She grabbed her go-bag and walked off the plane. Everyone was tired and ready to go home but Emily wasn’t just tired due to lack of sleep. There was so much collision within her mind she just needed to fall asleep and forget for a while. How she truly felt about JJ was not something to worry about now. Now it was time to go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know if you like this! also, I have a jemily playlist on spotify called “playing online scrabble in paris” by user mian.03 if anyone wants to check that out too


End file.
